But to really reap the benefits, business owners, online marketers and content creators should learn what constitutes UX and how to speak the language to get the most bang for their buck.

What is user experience?

User experience is as simple as its name sounds: the experience users have when they explore your website. While you can probably draw some intelligent conclusions from that, it helps to have a more refined definition than Google can give us.

Think of the navigation on any website: How easy is it to find the main sections? Is it intuitive? Is the checkout process seamless? If the answers are yes, chances are that website has good UX. The goal of UX design is to ensure your customers have a positive experience while exploring your website; big buttons, easy menus, prominent product pages and cohesive content are all a part of that.

UX Vs. UI

Any basic search through LinkedIn will likely lead you to the similar yet different user interface (UI) designer. These two roles work together (many designers are actually well versed in both) but UX is more technical, while UI handles the aesthetics of those same UX functions that are so important to consumers. Another way to think of it is that UX designers refine the functions of a website from the inside, and UI designers polish those functions from the outside.

There is obviously much more to UX and UI design than that but having a basic understanding of both — as well as their major differences — is the first step in being able to create a beautiful website people love to visit that will improve your business.